Postgame Quotes - UCLA 87, Arizona State 75
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 87, Arizona State 75
Tempe, Ariz. (Wells Fargo Arena)
February 23, 2017
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
on the status of freshman Lonzo Ball
“Well, he just tweaked his foot a little bit. They re-taped his foot and then he came back and was fine. Again, he played 33 minutes. He’s fine. He’s a competitor. But he did tweak it a little bit and he just wanted to get re-taped.”
on whether he worried that Lonzo would miss any playing time
“No. It’s Lonzo Ball. He’ll be there full force on Saturday, I’m almost positive.”
on the play of UCLA’s frontcourt
“Tremendous. We beat them by 20 on the glass. We knew that they wouldn’t get many bench minutes, and we wanted to try and wear them down. I thought that our board play was terrific. We hold them to below 40 percent shooting. I know that they made a couple of threes late. But we did a really good job, defensively, because that is like guarding four guards. Ike [Anigbogu] and G.G. [Goloman] were terrific off the bench. And I thought that what TJ and Tom did was really good. There was going to be a mismatch. And I thought that we did a really good job of winning that mismatch.”
on the zone defense triggering some momentum for UCLA in the first half
“Yeah, you know, just mixing it. If anything, it just keeps our guys engaged a little bit. They want to get to that offensive end so doggone fast. So, it’s just a fun group to coach. It’s a fun group to be around. And we are growing. That’s six in a row in this league and three of them are away from home. So, we’ve done a good job during this stretch and we have done a good job of defending. Our defense is getting better and our efficiency is getting better. You could see that any time we got a stop and we’d get out in transition, that’s where we are really good. And again, I thought we were really good. We had a slow start, but then we had 26 assists. It’s what this team does.”
on ASU making three-pointers on just about any opponent
“They made 14 and I think they shot about the same number in Pauley [on Jan. 19] as they did tonight. They’re playing four guards. And [Obinna] Oleka is a forward who really plays on the perimeter. You are not seeing any post game or any post feeds. That is hard. It’s hard for TJ, G.G., Ike and Tom to where they are constantly having to guard at the three-point line. I thought that we let [Torian] Graham get going. But Graham is a good shooter and he makes tough shots. And they’re going to score. So to hold them in the 70s, the mid-70s, I thought that was going to favor us. I thought coming in that they’d be able to score.”
on UCLA’s frontcourt against Arizona State
“That was going to be a big key for us. We’re obviously a team that likes to shoot the three and can shoot the three. But we really wanted to get the ball inside tonight because knew, especially if they weren’t going to their bench and they weren’t going to play big, the biggest guy on the floor for them was [Obinna] Oleka at 6-foot-8. So with our size and our length, we thought that we could score at the rim. When there is not a rim presence, I think you’ve got to go there. I thought that our guys did a really good job of doing that.”
on having defeated Pac-12 teams that UCLA had previously lost to (Oregon, USC)
“Well, there is confidence [heading into Saturday’s game]. But there’s [College] Gameday and it’s a national scene, it’s sold out, this [at ASU] was probably their biggest crowd of the year. I told our guys that that’s you guys, and you should feel good about that. And now we get Gameday plus Senior Night, so we get the whole deal from Arizona. But, we know that we’re playing a very good basketball team. We’re going to have to play well. If we play well, we’ll give ourselves a chance. And we are playing good basketball right now, so hopefully we can continue that.”
sophomore guard Aaron Holiday
on the performance of UCLA’s frontcourt
“With Ike, that’s the best that I’ve seen him play on offense. Which he does, obviously, in practice, but that’s the best in a game that he’s played. So, we’ve got to get him to continue to do that. TJ, he just is doing what he’s doing down low. They had smaller guys on him. We just kept feeding him and that’s how it ended up. We got a lot of points.”
on his aggressive mindset when entering the game from the bench
“Yeah, I obviously have to come in with an aggressive mindset because I’ve got to get myself going, first and foremost, and I’ve got to help my team win. Coming off the bench cold, I can’t come off being passive.”
on improvements UCLA needs to make when facing Arizona on Saturday
“Defense. No turnovers. I don’t think we turned the ball over against Arizona that much. But, mostly defense. We’ve got to take care of the defensive end. And we should be all right.”
on if other teams get demoralized with UCLA’s high-scoring offense
“It’s really when we stop them. That’s when they get frustrated. Obviously, they know that we can score. We’re focused on getting stops, not so much the offense.”
on UCLA playing its best basketball of the season
“Yeah, we’ve gone 5-0, now 6-0, in February, which is great. We are starting to get it together, and defensively, we’re now playing our best defense.”
on scoreboard watching the USC-Arizona game
“I mean, whatever happens happens. It’s not in my hands.”
freshman forward TJ Leaf
on the gameplan to pound the ball inside against ASU
“I mean, it was definitely our gameplan. We know that they kind of play small ball, but they’re very good at it. So we knew it was the gameplan. We just wanted to get out and execute it. Ike was definitely dominant for us, as he usually is. He doesn’t get enough credit, and he should. But even G.G. [Goloman] when he came in, he looked great for us. It’s good to have four bigs in there who all do their part.”
on whether UCLA gets excited when seeing a smaller lineup
“Whatever the game plan is, I’m just full force on it. If that is getting it to the guards for isos or whatever it is, I’m 100 percent on board. Tonight, it just happened to be getting the ball inside.”
on UCLA’s success with a 6-0 start through February
“We know that February sets up March, and that’s one of the big things that we have been harping on. We just want to play our best ball come March.”
on how he liked the ‘Curtain of Distraction’
“There is no curtain of distraction.”
on how he feels going into Saturday’s game at Arizona
“It’s going to be fun. Bigtime environment. Two big-time teams. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And we are ready for it.”
on UCLA having won rematches against Oregon and USC
“We have confidence going into every game regardless of what that is. It happens to be two really good teams, so we’re excited for it.”
on what he expects from the crowd and fans at Arizona
“I don’t really know what to expect. I just know that it’s a big-time environment. It’s sold-out every game. So, I mean, they’re probably going to be on all of our heads. That’s just what they do there.”
on whether he and his teammates will watch the end of the USC-Arizona game
“We’ll be heading to Tucson right now, but we’ll probably watch, yeah."
on if he has a rooting interesting for either USC or Arizona
“I don’t know that we root for either of them. It’s just a game to watch. It’s two good teams going at it.”
UCLA 87, Arizona State 75
Tempe, Ariz. (Wells Fargo Arena)
February 23, 2017
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
on the status of freshman Lonzo Ball
“Well, he just tweaked his foot a little bit. They re-taped his foot and then he came back and was fine. Again, he played 33 minutes. He’s fine. He’s a competitor. But he did tweak it a little bit and he just wanted to get re-taped.”
on whether he worried that Lonzo would miss any playing time
“No. It’s Lonzo Ball. He’ll be there full force on Saturday, I’m almost positive.”
on the play of UCLA’s frontcourt
“Tremendous. We beat them by 20 on the glass. We knew that they wouldn’t get many bench minutes, and we wanted to try and wear them down. I thought that our board play was terrific. We hold them to below 40 percent shooting. I know that they made a couple of threes late. But we did a really good job, defensively, because that is like guarding four guards. Ike [Anigbogu] and G.G. [Goloman] were terrific off the bench. And I thought that what TJ and Tom did was really good. There was going to be a mismatch. And I thought that we did a really good job of winning that mismatch.”
on the zone defense triggering some momentum for UCLA in the first half
“Yeah, you know, just mixing it. If anything, it just keeps our guys engaged a little bit. They want to get to that offensive end so doggone fast. So, it’s just a fun group to coach. It’s a fun group to be around. And we are growing. That’s six in a row in this league and three of them are away from home. So, we’ve done a good job during this stretch and we have done a good job of defending. Our defense is getting better and our efficiency is getting better. You could see that any time we got a stop and we’d get out in transition, that’s where we are really good. And again, I thought we were really good. We had a slow start, but then we had 26 assists. It’s what this team does.”
on ASU making three-pointers on just about any opponent
“They made 14 and I think they shot about the same number in Pauley [on Jan. 19] as they did tonight. They’re playing four guards. And [Obinna] Oleka is a forward who really plays on the perimeter. You are not seeing any post game or any post feeds. That is hard. It’s hard for TJ, G.G., Ike and Tom to where they are constantly having to guard at the three-point line. I thought that we let [Torian] Graham get going. But Graham is a good shooter and he makes tough shots. And they’re going to score. So to hold them in the 70s, the mid-70s, I thought that was going to favor us. I thought coming in that they’d be able to score.”
on UCLA’s frontcourt against Arizona State
“That was going to be a big key for us. We’re obviously a team that likes to shoot the three and can shoot the three. But we really wanted to get the ball inside tonight because knew, especially if they weren’t going to their bench and they weren’t going to play big, the biggest guy on the floor for them was [Obinna] Oleka at 6-foot-8. So with our size and our length, we thought that we could score at the rim. When there is not a rim presence, I think you’ve got to go there. I thought that our guys did a really good job of doing that.”
on having defeated Pac-12 teams that UCLA had previously lost to (Oregon, USC)
“Well, there is confidence [heading into Saturday’s game]. But there’s [College] Gameday and it’s a national scene, it’s sold out, this [at ASU] was probably their biggest crowd of the year. I told our guys that that’s you guys, and you should feel good about that. And now we get Gameday plus Senior Night, so we get the whole deal from Arizona. But, we know that we’re playing a very good basketball team. We’re going to have to play well. If we play well, we’ll give ourselves a chance. And we are playing good basketball right now, so hopefully we can continue that.”
sophomore guard Aaron Holiday
on the performance of UCLA’s frontcourt
“With Ike, that’s the best that I’ve seen him play on offense. Which he does, obviously, in practice, but that’s the best in a game that he’s played. So, we’ve got to get him to continue to do that. TJ, he just is doing what he’s doing down low. They had smaller guys on him. We just kept feeding him and that’s how it ended up. We got a lot of points.”
on his aggressive mindset when entering the game from the bench
“Yeah, I obviously have to come in with an aggressive mindset because I’ve got to get myself going, first and foremost, and I’ve got to help my team win. Coming off the bench cold, I can’t come off being passive.”
on improvements UCLA needs to make when facing Arizona on Saturday
“Defense. No turnovers. I don’t think we turned the ball over against Arizona that much. But, mostly defense. We’ve got to take care of the defensive end. And we should be all right.”
on if other teams get demoralized with UCLA’s high-scoring offense
“It’s really when we stop them. That’s when they get frustrated. Obviously, they know that we can score. We’re focused on getting stops, not so much the offense.”
on UCLA playing its best basketball of the season
“Yeah, we’ve gone 5-0, now 6-0, in February, which is great. We are starting to get it together, and defensively, we’re now playing our best defense.”
on scoreboard watching the USC-Arizona game
“I mean, whatever happens happens. It’s not in my hands.”
freshman forward TJ Leaf
on the gameplan to pound the ball inside against ASU
“I mean, it was definitely our gameplan. We know that they kind of play small ball, but they’re very good at it. So we knew it was the gameplan. We just wanted to get out and execute it. Ike was definitely dominant for us, as he usually is. He doesn’t get enough credit, and he should. But even G.G. [Goloman] when he came in, he looked great for us. It’s good to have four bigs in there who all do their part.”
on whether UCLA gets excited when seeing a smaller lineup
“Whatever the game plan is, I’m just full force on it. If that is getting it to the guards for isos or whatever it is, I’m 100 percent on board. Tonight, it just happened to be getting the ball inside.”
on UCLA’s success with a 6-0 start through February
“We know that February sets up March, and that’s one of the big things that we have been harping on. We just want to play our best ball come March.”
on how he liked the ‘Curtain of Distraction’
“There is no curtain of distraction.”
on how he feels going into Saturday’s game at Arizona
“It’s going to be fun. Bigtime environment. Two big-time teams. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And we are ready for it.”
on UCLA having won rematches against Oregon and USC
“We have confidence going into every game regardless of what that is. It happens to be two really good teams, so we’re excited for it.”
on what he expects from the crowd and fans at Arizona
“I don’t really know what to expect. I just know that it’s a big-time environment. It’s sold-out every game. So, I mean, they’re probably going to be on all of our heads. That’s just what they do there.”
on whether he and his teammates will watch the end of the USC-Arizona game
“We’ll be heading to Tucson right now, but we’ll probably watch, yeah."
on if he has a rooting interesting for either USC or Arizona
“I don’t know that we root for either of them. It’s just a game to watch. It’s two good teams going at it.”